Winter Training - Core Weight Workout
After a long cycling season where you’ve been sitting on the bike for lots of
hours/miles, the fall/early winter presents a good opportunity to spend a little
time shoring up your body and core musculature with winter lifting and cross
training.

Because cycling involves so many hours and the body is accumulating fatigue
the whole year, there is a tendency for cyclists to become somewhat
de-conditioned in their upper bodies and have a decrease in power output as they
near end of the season. Additionally, because of the extended hours on the bike,
many cyclists frequently experience postural issues.

Over time the traditional approach to winter weights has been a model that
follows a periodized, progressive plan that only emphasizes the essential
cycling muscles. Leg extension, hamstring curl, leg press or squat, and a
handful of exercises to maintenance some upper body. These moves, like riding,
are very linear but they don’t service any of your accessory or stabilizer
muscles.

With this in mind, a winter training program should include varied exercises
that will help create a complete athlete from head to toe. Movements should be
primarily compound in nature (utilizing more than one joint) and go beyond 90
degree angles. Additionally, lifting in the past has been slow and controlled
but, the musculature will respond more rapidly to moves that are explosive and,
in some instances, momentum based.

Moves that will work towards this end can be done with kettlebells, medicine
balls and, with proper instruction, Olympic bars. Doing whole body moves will be
a nice change from just blasting your quads and hamstrings with endless leg
exercises and will help refresh you mentally.

As a natural consequence, you’ll also be able to service some of your quick
explosive power. The winter is also a good time to consult a nutritionist about
how manage your diet and keep any weight gains of the honest variety (building
muscle) instead of the dishonest variety (FAT!).

US Army Master Fitness Trainer and USACycling coach Major T.g. Taylor
recommends doing these moves like so:

Hang Cleans
1) From an athletic stance, using an Olympic bar, let the weight hang with arms
relaxed.
2) Drop your hips toward the floor. Using your entire body get the weight moving
upward.
3) Just before the weight loses upward momentum, drop your hips again to get
your elbows under the weight.
The last part of this move is like the very end of a front squat. Let the weight
fall back down to the starting position and repeat.

Practice this move with a broom stick first. As you get more advanced your
feet will leave the ground momentarily just before you drop your hips the second
time.

Step 3: Just before the weight loses upward momentum, drop your hips again to
get your elbows under the weight.
The last part of this move is like the very end of a front squat.

Kttlebell Swings
1) Start in a Sumo squat position grasping the weight between your legs just off
the ground.
2) Driving upward with the legs AND creating a quick, short push out of the
shoulders; get the weight moving in a circular path upward until its just short
of directly overhead.
3) Pause for just a moment at the top. This pause will require your entire core,
legs, and upper body to contract. Lower the weight along the same path letting
it swing between your legs. Repeat using the swinging momentum to get the weight
going back up again.

Click on the photo for a larger image.
Step 1 (left) Start in a Sumo squat position grasping the weight between
your legs just off the ground.- Step 2 (right) Driving upward with the
legs AND creating a quick, short push out of the shoulders; get the weight
moving in a circular path upward until its just short of directly overhead.

Step 3: Pause for just a moment at the top. This pause will require your entire
core, legs, and upper body to contract. Lower the weight along the same path
letting it swing between your legs. Repeat using the swinging momentum to get
the weight going back up again.

These are advanced moves. You should consult a personal trainer or cycling
coach to learn the form and technique before you employ these moves.

Companion article:
Winter
Training 1Lifting during the winter can go a long way to shore up
any inadequacies that a cyclist may have and equalize left to right imbalances.

Ainslie MacEachran is a AAAI/ISMA
certifed personal trainer, the head coach and owner of
www.geminitrainingsystems.com
and the co-0owner of Orchards Athletic Club in Loveland, Colorado. For companion
videos you can email Ainslie through the website.